We recently connected with Karina Salazar Pippens and have shared our conversation below.

Karina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

It all started back from when I was younger. Hearing the phrases from my teachers like “you can’t do that”, or “photography’s not a real job, you’ll never make it”. Things of that nature, and you know I actually used to believe those words until later in life people actually started getting with me for bookings and collabs. I used to get so down about it when people would say things like that, then eventually I’d fall into a creative block. Not letting myself create the way I wanted to or being pressured on “how” I should create.

Fast forward to 2020’s pandemic I felt super down about how the way the world was just shutting down and the fact that it was really hard to even think of what the future would be like. I think my camera stayed inside of my camera bag for almost that whole year, I probably took it out like twice. I was kind of stuck in a rut, working a 9-5 retail job I wasn’t happy at, not taking any bookings really because I didn’t have a studio of my own, didn’t like doing outdoor photography really and we were still in the pandemic so going over to peoples places wasn’t really an option. I can’t even begin to count how many times I passed along Photo gigs to friends. I just didn’t have that drive anymore really. I even tried to distract myself with a cosmetic line I created, I worked really hard at it but eventually I lost the drive for that too. I think I was really just at the point of trying to figure out what my real calling was and towards the last revamp of my cosmetic line I found myself trying to encourage myself and others to keep going, as well as creating things such as shirts that had meaningful encouraging sayings on them.

2022 came around and something in me just had this urge to start all over but this time I knew for fact I was going to stick with it because not only was it encouraging to me but it was also helping others. I created my brand “Never Let Your Talent Go To Waste”. I started posting about it on Instagram and TikTok and I was pushing encouraging words on each post. The main shirt has the brand name on it and a lot of people were commenting on posts about how much they really needed the encouragement today, or “your brand really inspires me to keep creating”. I then realized, “oh yeah this is it, this is my calling”. Because it hit me like not only does this encourage me in doing creative photography the way I want to but it’s also encouraging others to walk in their creative paths or continue!

Every time someone tells me how my brand has helped inspire or encourage them through creating it really just gives me this heartwarming feeling. Like a feeling that I never had when I was younger. I just want to be that brand that people can have that same heartwarming feeling about if they’ve ever been in my shoes when it comes to being in a creative block or believing the naysayers, like you can actually do many amazing things with your artwork and your own creative minds and hands can open doors for you that you never knew could happen for you. It’s about shifting your mindset and just going all out for it especially if when you know it’s something you love to do creatively and it makes you happy.

That is how I came up with my brand @neverletyourtalentgotowaste. I found that there are so many of us artists out there who’ve either been in the same boat of uncertainty and feeling stuck and I want to continue to spread encouragement amongst us all.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I was a young kid I lost my moms to cancer and as I grew up I found photography to be the way of helping me cope with my mothers passing. I’ve been taking pictures since I was about 9 years old and since then I never stopped. I love taking peoples portraits and just seeing the happiness it brings them. I also love encouraging people, especially artists because I know how tough it can be in this world. Many say creating art won’t pay the bills and in some cases that could be true but if you’re passionate enough about your art it actually can. But many of us don’t create art for the money, it can be a plus for sure but a lot of times us artists create because it’s our way of expressing ourselves and it’s not for everyone else to understand. I realized over time that a lot of artists can become discouraged because of dealing with doubt, lack of motivation because of others opinions. I created my brand “Never Let Your Talent Go To Waste” specifically for this purpose and to encourage artists everyday!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to encourage artists from all over to keep striving in their creative purposes, take breaks sometime because we need those but never forget why you started creating and never stop creating the things that make you happy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

So far in my life I’ve had to unlearn that not everyone’s opinions matter. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but that doesn’t mean we as artists have to be influenced by others opinions. The Art we create is not meant for everyone to understand, Art is a feeling and we create to express how we feel, not everyone feels what you do, that’s part of our own creative journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://neverletyourtalentgotowaste.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neverletyourtalentgotowaste/
• Other: TikTok: @nvrletyourtalentgo2waste

Image Credits
K Salazar Photo